Massive Legal Reforms Needed for Indonesia to Become a State of Law: Jokowi

The Jakarta Globe – Jakarta. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said massive legal reforms are needed for Indonesia to regain its status as a state of law.

Jokowi said the main issues to be addressed on a policy level include corruption, human rights violations, contraband, intentional wildfires and drug crimes, while on the cultural level, the problem is in rising intolerance, violence and vigilantism.

“I realized the goal of being a state of justice has not been reached, neither by the state administration, nor in the social life. Our law is stern towards the lower classes, but becomes blurred as it reaches the top,” Jokowi said in a cabinet meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday (11/10).

The president said Indonesia must respect, protect and guarantee the fundamental human rights to all its citizens.

Jokowi also referred to the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) which scores a country on the perceived level of public-sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). In 2015, Indonesia ranked 36th, a small improvement from 34th in 2014.

In the Rule of Law Index released by the World Justice Project, Indonesia ranked 52nd among 102 states and below Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines due to the low levels of integrity and poor ethics in its justice system.

“If this is allowed, it will lead to distrust and disobedience of the law,” Jokowi said.